RPO -- William Shakespeare : Shakespeare's Sonnets: Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend

William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Sonnet 4

1Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend

2Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy?

3Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend,

4And being frank she lends to those are free:

5Then beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse

6The bounteous largess giv'n thee to give?

7Profitless usurer, why dost thou use

8So great a sum of sums yet can'st not live?

9For having traffic with thy self alone,

10Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive;

11Then how when nature calls thee to be gone,

12What acceptable audit can'st thou leave?

13 Thy unus'd beauty must be tomb'd with thee,

14 Which usèd lives th' executor to be.

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Notes

1] Unthrifty] wasteful, profligate.

4] those are free] those who are generous, noble.

5] beauteous] disyllabic here. niggard] miserly.

6] largess] liberality. giv'n: given Q.

8] live] subsist.

9] traffic] trade, business.

Online text copyright © 2012, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): b1v.
First publication date: 1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/21

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg

Other poems by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spendSonnet 4

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Sonnet 4